Simon wanders...

Usually it's not that easy to explain reasons that lead us to do crazy things during our lives, moreover when you are on travel.
December. Dark snowy afternoon in Budapest. I still wonder what pushed me to steal a small towel from my hotel (actually it was a loan, I am addicted to "steal" candies and soap only) and hastily run out from the hotel.

Usually it's not that easy to explain reasons that lead us to do crazy things during our lives, moreover when you are on travel.
December- dark snowy afternoon in Budapest.... I still wonder what pushed me to steal a small towel from my hotel (actually it was a loan, usually I am addicted to "steal" candies and soap) and hastily run out from the hotel.

I jump in M4 line, the oldest metropolitan in whole Europe, and i am immediately surprised on how the wagons are narrower than a double bed, and I drop off in Heroes Square and skirting the Vajdahunyad Castle I follow the high steam cloud that indicated where the Széchenyi Baths are.

Coming out from changing room with my hawaiian swimsuit, producing the same effect of a pink ostrich coming out from the same door, perching my small towel on the border I try to dip my thumb in first pool and i immediately feel like a boiled egg. I should have been staring astonished, like a close encounter of the 3rd kind, at the old lady perfectly relaxed in this water at the temperature of more than 40°C. Imagine a giant boiled chicken with an extra-small swimsuit and you will get half of the vibe. But that madness was a childs' game in comparison with the guys who were nicely speaking about the gulasch they just had for dinner with 18°C water at the height of their neck.

Realizing that this kind of relaxing treatments are not at all relaxing for me, i decide to head immediately towards the main attraction of the baths, the huge external pool, that with its 38°C lets your body forget about the temperature of -15°C of the air you will be surrounded of when going out... at least for some seconds.

I leave my flip-flops on the ice on the floor and continue barefoot praying for not to slip and break every bone of my body.
Finally i reach the border and the water of the pool feels like heaven. I relax in the amazing sensation of being surrounded by hot water and steam that covers the cloudy white sky, and creates the illusion that winter is faraway, the worthy ending of such an unusual experience for a delicate italian guy.